Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki square off in a historic first all-Serbian final on the ATP Tour.
With three Serbians in the world's top sixteen it was going to happen sooner rather than later and the big surprise is that Novak Djokovic isn't involved. The world number one won't be returning to the tour for at least another fortnight but in his absence, Tipsarevic and Troicki have given their fans plenty to cheer.
Tipsarevic is desperately hunting a place in the world's top ten by the end of the year and he's still in with a fighting chance of making the cut for London next month. He badly needs to beat his close friend and defending champion in today's final and after easing through a couple of challenging matches against Dmitry Tursunov and Nikolay Davydenko, he goes in as favourite.
Troicki upped his level to see off dangerous qualifier Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4 in the semis and he was delighted with his display. "I had to play my best tennis to beat Chardy today," he said. "I knew I had to concentrate on my return games and I was happy I was able to do that. It was tough to break him.
"I had great support from the crowd once again... it is really special to play here. My father's family is Russian and Moscow is my favourite tournament. Belgrade is great for me too but I have had better results here !"
Troicki won their only previous match 6-3, 6-4 when they met in the second round of this event three years ago.
Prediction: Tipsarevic in three.
